Google just announced its Q4 2011 earnings and didn’t meet the expectations of investors. After announcing, the search giant’s stock plummeted down almost 9% ($58). That said, we’re not IntoFinance, so we were eager to hear a few nuggets of information pertaining to the mobile space. There wasn’t much to share but what was shared was rather impressive.
To date, there have been more than 250,000,000 Android devices activated. Passing the quarter-billion mark must feel good for Mr. Andy Rubin and co. but we’re sure that number will only grow going forward. One also should keep in mind that Google only counts devices that have its own applications pre-installed, so the insane sales of the Kindle Fire or other devices that run Android without the Market are not counted. With a number like 250,000,000, Google doesn’t need to count anything else.
With so many Android devices in the world today, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to hear that a lot of applications have been downloaded from the Android Market. A total of 11 billion applications have been downloaded so far. This past December, Google announced that Android had reached the 10 billion download point, so hitting 11 billion in less than two months is very impressive to say the least.
Google Wallet was touched on briefly but nothing new came from the call. As you’d expect, Google will continue to invest into Wallet and sees a lot of opportunity going forward.
Also mentioned was the Motorola Mobility (MMI) acquisition, where Page claimed that the purchase “shows our commitment to Android,” and that the company will be tracked and operated separately. Page ensured that the Motorola purchase wouldn’t change the way it does business with its other Android partners, but let’s just see who makes the next Nexus phone first.